Oh my goodness!! Just finished two days with Julie Winkel and could not be happier. What a supportive, firm, fair and positive teacher she is. I was in the lowest section 2’3-2’6", two green horses (one with a pro, one with a super adult rider) plus 3 adults (me!) on experienced horses. She built on excellent flat work, pinpointed each of our issues, and addressed them clearly and with language that made sense to each of us. The jumping built slowly and methodically, and she was happy to step things down if needed but brought us all up to her challenging courses. Her emphasis in the bigger sessions was based on educating us about what a judge is looking for. She walked each group through how a judge judges, and the groups rode and got scored. We learned so much about the numerical system, the ‘why’ of each mistake, how to fix our rides, what homework it takes for each problem we had. It was so good! No horse got more attention that others, even those who were struggling. That was great-- sessions were tightly timed. (ok…after my last session, she did come over and love on my mare, who she bred and raised. That was sweet!).
I have the opportunity to ride in a clinic at our barn with Julie Winkel and being an older adult, want to be prepared both physically and mentally for it. I’ll be in the 2’6"ish group. Can anyone tell me what they are like? I know sessions will be 2 hours long (ahh…Covid body alert!) and I’m assuming there will be flat work as well as jumping exercises. Incidentally, my mare is a product of her breeding program so that’ll be fun for her to see how she’s turned out (through no help of mine! I have only had her for 6 months!).